WBAL will FINALLY wake up more Baltimoreans at 4:30 a.m. starting Monday.

I have been waiting about this expansion since forever because WMAR is a sucky news operation with a crummy way of presenting news. But since 2011, WMAR was the only option for 4:30 a.m. morning news in Baltimore. After Monday, not only that won’t be the case anymore but after Monday, if I was to live in Baltimore (which I don’t), I would finally stop watching WMAR altogether.

Starting January 12th (this upcoming Monday), WBAL 11 will add a half-hour 4:30 a.m. newscast. Titled 11 News Today at 4:30 a.m., the news program will now become 3 and a 1/2 hours from 4:30-7:00 a.m. on WBAL 11 and 7:00-8:00 a.m. on WBAL+/Me-TV (WBAL-DT 11.2). WBAL’s current morning news team, Jason Newton and Mindy Basara with 11 Insta-Weather+ from meteorologist Ava Marie and TrafficPulse 11 with Sarah Caldwell, will all helm the new extra half-hour to their work duties.

WBAL 11’s President and General Manager, Dan Joerres:

“As our viewers’ lifestyles continue to change, we want to be on the air, providing news and weather information as the alarm clock goes off.”

With this expansion, it will now be able to compete with WMAR 2’s ABC 2 News Good Morning Maryland at 4:30 a.m. for local news in that timeslot in Baltimore.

In other words, its about time a station in Baltimore (other than WMAR 2) went to 4:30 a.m. and I’m glad, its WBAL 11.